Ian and I have both been manufacturing products in China for over 5 years. In this episode we talk in detail about our plan to be a distributor of sport bike replacement fairings and why the whole thing fell apart.

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Haha, thanks man. I been building web apps for years, I am sure my idiot fail stories will make yours look like minor errors. I recently made a $10+k blunder on an iPad game, that I was luckily able to salvage and am sitting on a $20k app that has taken me over a year to develop, that I still haven't shipped yet.

So there I was, driving to work and listening to my favorite blog and totally getting into this story about ferrings (which, by the way, sounds like the offspring of ferrets and lemmings). I totally forget that you guys started by talking about failures and I'm like “YA! They're totally telling us about a business and I'm excited for them and this is cool and AWESOME!”

Then I remember you were talking about failure…and Ian said all of that work was sitting in a folder on his desktop.

Tear.

THOUGH…I will say, that I highly doubt you can consider that a failure since you guys learned hella lot from it and even used the story for a podcast, even if it wasn't as lucrative as you'd had hoped.

Oh, and I hear about TropicalMBA #3 and think “I wonder how willing my wife would be to go live on an island with (soon to be) three kids. Hmmm.” ;)

TropicalMBA

haha dude I smell an interview. I'm sure I can relate to that heartache. my story is embarrassing. Bottom line: money doesn't stop Dan from sucking at stuff. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the next story!

TropicalMBA

David– if you think its a good idea man its all yours :) !!! Agreed we are just swingin' for the fences and who knows we might hit something good? If not, at least we can podcast and have a blast talking with other entrepreneurs. I don't want to sound crazy, but that just might be more fun than being a millionaire. :)

Buisch

The one day I shoot out the door without syncing my iPod, I go to the cafe only to find my favorite podcast has a new episode and I can't put it on my iPod!! Now I get to think about its awesomeness all day and know that I have to wait. Delayed gratification fail.

TropicalMBA

Oh shaz! Dude, to be honest its not that great. Whateves you up to today is way better. This is just candy. If you find the time to take listen we'll appreciate it !

Put down my vote to hear about the $15k web bomb! Managing web app/mobile app development can be really tough. I've done web app development as a local and remote employee, as a freelancer/consultant, and with and without other outsourced developers, so I've seen it all! As a developer, the single biggest problem I have to deal with consistently is ambiguity in direction and desired outcomes. Many people seem to not know what they want out of their apps, and the trouble is they don't realize that they don't know this. The solution is learning how to think like a developer yourself (without actually spending all the time it takes to become one). I could elaborate on this for anybody who's interested.

Also, in the realm of mind-blowing books I submit “Consciousness Explained” by Dan Dennett. It might not make you rethink all of reality, but I've always been fascinated by consciousness and this is one of those books that makes your brain feel like it just spent a week at the gym. Plus, when you're done you get to drop words like “homunculus” into everyday conversation, which is always fun.

Great stuff, guys. Really interesting hearing about that business idea that ended up not working out in the end. What a great learning experience, though. Dan, looking forward to hearing your own failure story very much.

I thought the call from Patrick was really cool – it reminded me of a video I saw on Tim Ferriss' blog a while back, it was of a guy who owned a concrete company and used many of the principles in the 4HWW to automate his business. It's the 5th video on this post…

Isaac, great point. As a business owner/ manager it's key you understand core functions like accounting or seo but not necessarily be the one to carry out the tasks — same with understanding developers and development!

Awesome episode guys, one of the best yet. You guys are definitely on the lifestyle business all-star team, ballin!!

Also I just have a little suggestion for the podcast. I think one of the reasons this episode was so great was that you could go in to detail about the market, products, and experiences. And I know you guys don't want to talk about your own markets or products and I wouldn't either. So my suggestion is to make up a market and products similar to your own or at least with easy comparisons and analogies and use it every episode to explain in more detail the things that have been going on in your business and the techniques or topics for the podcast. At least for me when I am able to visualize a product and market it makes more sense, easier to follow, and more entertaining. Just a suggestion no problem if you guys don't want to.

Also Dan I've been diggin the book recommendations, great reads.

Keep up the good work guys

TropicalMBA

Hey Erik that's a really interesting suggestion, I've never thought of it that way. I'll talk about it with Ian and see if there is a way we can apply it. Thanks for listening!

There was good news for bicyclists at City Hall Wednesday as Mayor Villaraigosa signed an ambitious bike plan that will offer more route options for those traveling on two wheels. The mayor said the plan would …

giving a whole new meaning to the term “crotch rocket. … enjoy your STD (Seriously Tacky Distraction), and give some thought to crashing

Anonymous

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time and effort to put together this article.
I think once again myself spending way to much time both reading and commenting.
But what, it was still worth it!